Chinese peacekeepers to Lebanon clear more than 2000 mines in 10 years

The photo taken on May 18, 2016 shows Chinese peacekeeping engineers leave their camp for a mine-sweeping operation in south Lebanon . (81.cn/Wu Songtao)

SOUTH LEBANON, June 12 (ChinaMil) -- 20 soldiers of the 15th Chinese peacekeeping multi-functional engineer detachment to Lebanon set out at 6 a.m. on May 31, local time, from their camp heading for a certain region on the Lebanese-Israeli border to perform the mine sweeping and explosive removing tasks.

With its 180 members mainly coming from an engineer regiment under the 13th Combined Corps of the PLA Army, the 15th Chinese peacekeeping multi-functional engineer detachment to Lebanon consists of three operational engineer platoons, a construction engineer platoon, an operational service support platoon and an explosive-removing team.

The detachment is deployed in south Lebanon to perform the one-year-long tasks including sweeping mines, removing explosives, setting up boundary markers, working at military and civilian engineering construction, and carrying out humanitarian aid operations.

Since China started to join UN peacekeeping operations in Lebanon in 2006, Chinese peacekeepers have cleared more than 2,000 landmines and more than 1,500 unexploded ordnances with no casualties in the past 10 years.

Besides, the Chinese peacekeepers have set up more than 100 boundary markers along the Blue Line that separates Lebanon with Israel over the past 10 years, achieving a record of zero error in positioning of these boundary markers.